Design thinking 2.0 – When innovators become change leaders

Although design thinking traces its roots to the late sixties, the discipline entered the business world a mere decade ago. According to Tim Brown and Roger Martin, two respected thought leaders in the field, the time has come for design thinking to go to the next level.

My take on it: it is all about the need for innovators to think like change leaders – whether they are working on super complex or relatively simple innovations.

Article first written for the blog of HR People & Strategy (USA). Also appeared on the blog of the Strategic Capability Network (Canada).

2009: business people embrace design thinking

Arguably, the design thinking movement in the corporate world started in the fall of 2009 when two books hit the shelves (of course, several organizations had started adopting design thinking principles prior to 2009; some of their stories were actually featured in these books):

“The design of business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage” by Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman School of Management in Toronto.

Together the two bestsellers made a strong case for using design thinking to improve user experiences; develop new products or services; revamp corporate strategies; disturb or reinvent industries. Since then, countless organizations across sectors have been practicing design thinking and its human-centered approach to innovation.

Brown and Martin make a new case

A few weeks ago, Brown and Martin came back to the forefront with a co-authored article in Harvard Business Review titled “Design for Action”.

The thought leaders note that design thinking has been tackling increasingly complex challenges over the years. As a result, a new hurdle has appeared: “the acceptance of what we might call ‘the designed artifact’ – whether products, user experiences, strategy or complex system – by stakeholders”. The authors explain that “with very complex artifacts, the design of their ‘intervention’ – their introduction and integration into the status quo – is even more critical to success than the design of the artifacts themselves.”

Traditionally, designers could focus on the innovative design while leaving the roll-out to others. Not any more. Design thinking practitioners must raise their game by working simultaneously and in parallel on: 1) innovating; and 2) developing buy-in for the innovation.

Brown and Martin illustrate this dual, integrated approach with two cases: the launch of MassMutual’s “Society of Grownups”; and the large-scale efforts of Intercorp to “design a new Peru”.

Experienced change leaders in familiar territory

When reading these examples, I couldn’t help thinking: “Well, this is all about applying sound change leadership principles while innovating”. Indeed, experienced change leaders should be very familiar with the recommendations in the article:

Series of small steps in the right direction – as opposed to a big-bang approach.

From Design Thinking 1.0 to 2.0

In the fall of 2009, the business world entered Design Thinking 1.0 by discovering the importance of thinking like designers. Countless innovations came out of this realization.

Six years later, we might be entering Design Thinking 2.0 with the design world’s own aha moment – that adopting a change leadership mindset from the get-go significantly increases the chances that the innovation will take hold. This “new” insight should yield even greater things.

Brown and Martin have coined a fancy phrase to capture the injection of change leadership thinking into the innovation process: “designing the intervention”. If it helps designers become change leaders, I am totally fine with it.

The important thing is that the two communities – designers and corporate types – have been learning a great deal from each other’s over the years. Business people have been thinking like designers; and designers are now becoming change leaders. Another proof that getting different folks around the same table is very powerful.

Bottom-line: innovations that stick!

P.S. The article seems to imply that “designing the intervention” – a.k.a. thinking like a change leader – is for very complex innovations. I agree it is a ‘must-have’ in such situations. However, I would argue that innovators should bring their change leadership thinking regardless of the complexity. They just need to ensure the intervention matches the challenge. Don’t bring a backhoe when a small shovel is enough for the job.

Edmond Mellina is president & co-founder of ORCHANGO. He is internationally respected as an expert in change management when change is fast-paced, ongoing and disruptive. For over 25 years, he has partnered with public and private sector clients in Europe, North America and the Middle East to build their change capabilities while helping them win in an increasingly digital world. Prior to co-founding ORCHANGO, Edmond was a corporate transformation executive in drastically changing sectors: CIO at Delta Hotels when Expedia disrupted the hotel business; VP Corporate Development & GM for the technology business of Envoy Communications Group when marketing agencies started to become digital. Edmond serves on the National Board of Directors of the Strategic Capability Network.

Nice to hear from you Sandeep. I didn’t know you moved to “Puro”. This looks like an exciting gig. I have fond memories from the leadership development work Pascal (our principal) and I did at Purolator years ago. Say hello to Maryse P. in Montreal if you know her. And yes, give me a call if you’d like 😉

We received this comment via LinkedIn:
“Thanks for sharing, Edmond. Design thinking is a hot topic of interest for me and I will pick up the 2 recommended books. Have you heard about the SFI masters program at OCAD? I’m also looking into that.”

You are welcome Valerie. No, I hadn’t heard about the SFI program at OCAD – thanks for pointing it out. I just watched the video on OCAD’s website. It looks like a great learning experience! I liked the way one of the profs captured the essence of the program: “understand change and lead innovation”.

ORCHANGO [awr-cheyn-goh] is a Canadian-based management consulting and learning agency established in 2002. Our specialty is change management when change is fast-paced, ongoing and disruptive — in other words, today’s change. We build the change capabilities of public and private sector clients while helping them win in an increasingly digital world.